Description:The Big Sky Fiber Arts Festival has been held for over twenty years at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton, Montana. The Festival will be open to the public on offering free fiber arts demonstrations, fiber arts courses, and judged animal and fleece shows. Vendors in the fiber arts, and various fiber animals will also be present.Workshops will be taught by nationally known fiber artists and producers, and include such courses as: felting, knitting and crocheting; making your own tools; spinning, weaving and fiber dyeing techniques; and wool marketing and production.Melissa Arnold, textile designer, returns to teach needle felting with a machine, while New York fashion designer Lily Chin will present a course in couture crochet. Suzanne Correira of Fire Ant Ranch will show participants how to make their own tools. A course in Aran cable knitting will be taught by Janet Szabo; also, Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, fiber artist and marketing authority, will lead a course in weighted-warp weaving.